Unit One Part 1 Assessment
Native American Author Presentation Project:
- Work alone or with a partner (20 Authors on master choice
list)
- Approximately 3 minutes per person (3-6 minutes = typical
length of presentation)
- Create a PPT: 20-30 slides(10-15 per person in team)
- Include 10 or more relevant or complementary images
throughout the presentation
- Include biographical information of interest and importance
about your selected Native American author (no overlap of authors)
- Include excerpts from most well known writings (3 or more);
also introduce each excerpt; also explain why you picked each excerpt.
- Include what makes this person’s writings noteworthy,
interesting, memorable, great (your opinions plus expert reviewers opinions)
- Final slide should include a list of links referenced.
- Work days: Wednesday, Friday
- Presentations due (email PPT to Miss Ostlund by Monday morning at 8:30 am)
- Scoring: 10% on time submission of completed PPT; 10% effective use of images; 10 % effective use of work periods and teamwork; 20% PPT meets expectations; 50% presentation to class
20 Native American Authors You Should Read
November is Native American Heritage Month, a celebration meant to give
recognition to the significant contribution the native peoples have made to the
history, culture, and growth of the United States. One way to get into the
spirit of things is by reading works by some of the greatest Native American
authors from the past century. Some of their works will shed light on activism,
culture, and history, some expose the challenges of living on reservations or
establishing an identity in the modern world, and all are beautiful,
well-written pieces of poetry, prose, and non-fiction that are excellent reads,
regardless of the heritage of their authors. This list touches on just a few of
the amazing Native American authors out there and can be a great starting point
for those wanting to learn more throughout this month and the rest of the year.
Sherman Alexie is one of the best known Native American
writers today. He has authored several novels and collections of poetry and
short stories, a number of which have garnered him prestigious awards,
including a National Book Award. In his work, Alexie draws on his experiences
growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation, addressing sometimes difficult
themes like despair, poverty, alcoholism, and Native American identity with
humor and compassion. As a result, no survey of Native American literature is
complete without Alexie’s work.
A key figure in the first wave of the “Native American
Renaissance” (a term fraught with controversy, but that’s another discussion),
Silko is an accomplished writer who has been the recipient of MacArthur
Foundation Grants and a lifetime achievement award from the Native Writers’
Circle of the Americas. Her most well-known work is the novel Ceremony,
in which she draws on her Laguna heritage to tell the story of a WWII veteran
returning home from the war to his poverty-striken reservation. She has written
numerous novels, short stories, and poems in the years since, and remains a
powerful figure in American literature.
Growing up on reservations helped inspire some of the work
of this writer and professor, and she honed her gift for the written word at UC
Berkeley while earning her M.A. in English. Her novel The Jailing of Cecelia
Capture was nominated for a Pulitzer and is perhaps her best-known work,
though her Bloodlines: Odyssey of a Native Daughter is a close runner
up, earning her the American Book Award. Both novels, one fiction and one
non-fiction, are essential reads for anyone trying to understand the modern
Native American experience.
Paula Gunn Allen made an impact on both fiction and poetry,
and on the anthropological understanding of Native American culture, making her
a must-read for anyone exploring Native American literature. Among her
fictional work, The Woman Who Owned the Shadows, her only novel, is a
must-read, as is her collection of poems, Life Is a Fatal Disease. Both
were inspired by Pueblo oral traditions and stories. Allen also produced
impressive non-fiction work, perhaps most notably her book The Sacred Hoop:
Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, a controversial work
in which she argues that women played a much larger role in Native societies
than was recorded by the largely patriarchal Europeans in their writings.
One of the most outspoken voices in Indian affairs for
decades, Vine Deloria’s writings helped to redefine Native activism in the 60s
and 70s. He is perhaps best-known for his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An
Indian Manifesto, which upon its publication in 1969 generated
unprecedented attention to Indian issues. He would go on to write more than 20
books, addressing stereotypes, challenging accepted ideas of American history,
and helping the American Indian Movement to gain momentum.
A writer, teacher, artist, and storyteller, N. Scott Momaday
is one of the most celebrated Native American writers of the past century. His
novel, House Made of Dawn, is widely credited with helping Native
American writers break into the mainstream and won Momaday the Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction in 1969. Since then, he has published several more novels, collections
of short stories, plays, and poems and has been honored with numerous awards,
including a National Medal of Arts and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. He was also made Poet Laureate of
Oklahoma.
Professor Duane Niatum has dabbled in everything from
playwriting to essay writing, but he is best known for his poetry. His epic
lyric poems draw on both the work of great Western poets and his native
S’Klallam cultural heritage. Some of his best work can be found in his
collections The Crooked Beak of Love and Song for the Harvester of
Dreams (which won the American Book Award).
Gerald Vizenor is one of the most prolific Native American
writers, having published more than 30 books to date. In addition to teaching
Native American Studies at UC Berkeley for several years, Vizenor has produced
numerous screenplays, poems, novels, and essays. His novel Griever: An
American Monkey King in China, a story that takes Native mythology overseas
into a Chinese setting, won him the American Book Award in 1988. His latest
novel, Shrouds of White Earth, also won him the same award, and he
continues to be a leading figure in Native American literature today.
During her long literary career, Louise Erdrich has produced
thirteen novels, as well as books of poetry, short stories, children books, and
a memoir. Her first novel Love Medicine won her the National Book
Critics Circle Award in 1984, and would set the stage for her later work, The
Plague of Doves, which was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Erdrich’s work
centers on Native American characters, but draws on the literary methods and
narrative style pioneered by William Faulkner.
Considered one of the founding authors in the Native
American Renaissance, Welch was one of the best-known and respected Native
American authors during his lifetime. The author of five novels, his work Fools
Crow won an American Book Award in 1986 and Winter in the Blood has
been named as an inspirational work by many other authors. Welch also published
works of non-fiction and poetry, and even won an Emmy for the documentary he
penned with Paul Stekler called Last Stand at Little Bighorn.
Bush is an author, creative writing professor, and musician.
During the 1960s, Bush was a well-known activist in the American Indian
Movement, protesting, organizing, and writing to bring attention to Indian issues.
Yet Bush is best known for his poetry, much of which is musical and spoken. His
poems touch on themes like identity, cultural conflict, social struggle, and
the disintegration of traditional values, and can be found in both recorded and
written forms.
While Harjo has written memoirs, screenplays, and children’s
books (as well as numerous musical works), she’s primarily known as a poet. She
honed her poetic skills at Iowa’s prestigious Writers’ Workshop and is one of
the most lauded Native American poets working today. Some of her best-known
collections of poetry include In Mad Love and War, which won the
American Book Award and the William Carlos Williams Award, The Woman Who
Fell from the Sky, and A Map to the Next World: Poetry and Tales.
While Harjo’s work does address her native culture, she also explores her
struggles as an individual and a woman, which makes her work accessible to
readers from any background.
Another notable Native American poet working today is Simon
J. Ortiz. Ortiz has published short fiction and non-fiction prose, but his
poetry is perhaps his most evocative and well-known work. Much of Ortiz’s work
focuses on modern man’s alienation, from others, himself, and his environment.
His work From Sand Creek: Rising In This Heart Which Is Our America
received the Pushcart Prize in poetry, though his 1992 book of prose and
poetry, Woven Stone, is also among his more important publications.
northSun is a celebrated Native American poet and activist
who has won numerous accolades during her career. She has published five collections
of poetry and one non-fiction book documenting tribal history. Her poetry can
be characterized as both funny and brutally honest, focusing on native life
both on and off the reservation. Those looking to learn more about her work
should check out one of her most recent collections, love at gunpoint, as
well as her earlier work Diet pepsi and nacho cheese.
While thus far all of the writers featured on this list have
been modern, it wouldn’t be a complete list without including Eastman, whose
early works on Native American history helped to redefine how Americans looked
at the past. Eastman was the first author to address American history from a
native point of view, writing a number of books that detailed his own past as
well as Native American culture and history. Must-reads include Deep Woods
to Civilization and The Indian Today: The Past and Future of the First
American.
Another early standout among Native American authors is John
Joseph Mathews. A historian and novelist, he would become an important voice
for the Osage people. His first book, Wa’kon-tah: The Osage and The White
Man’s Road would become an instant bestseller, but he is best known for Sundown,
a semi-autobiographical novel about a young man who feels estranged from
tribal life after returning from college and military service. Mathews also
played a key role in helping to preserve the culture of the Osage people,
documenting numerous stories and oral histories in his The Osages: Children
of the Middle Waters.
Diane Glancy is another Iowa Writers’ Workshop grad, today
teaching Native American literature and creative writing as well as devoting
much of her time to writing. She has penned a large number of poetry, plays,
non-fiction, and novels over her career, several of which have won prestigious
awards, including the American Book Award, the Pushcart Prize, and the
Capricorn Prize for Poetry. Glancy uses realistic language and vivid imagery in
her work to address subjects such as spirituality, family ties and her identity
as a person of mixed blood. Those who are new to Glancy’s work should start
with Claiming Breath, Lone Dog’s Winter Count, Primer of the
Obsolete, or Iron Woman.
Winona LaDuke is an author, speaker, economist, and activist
who after graduating from Harvard has dedicated much of her life to protecting
native culture. While she is perhaps best known for her activism and political
involvement (LaDuke was the vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader in
1996 and 2000), she’s also an accomplished author. Among her works are one
novel, Last Standing Woman, and two non-fiction books, All Our
Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, an excellent primer on the
movement to reclaim tribal lands, and Recovering the Sacred: The Power of
Naming and Claiming, which looks at traditional beliefs and practices.
Wendy Rose is an artist, writer, and anthropologist,
currently working as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Rose’s work tends to focus on her mixed heritage, which often made her feel
both alienated from the Hopi people and whites, as well as issues of ecology,
feminism, and politics. One of Rose’s best known and most analyzed poems is
“Truganinny,” the tale of a young aboriginal woman who was the last of her
kind. That poem can be read online, but fans of Rose would be remiss not to
also explore her collection of poems Lost Copper, which was nominated
for a Pulitzer Prize.
David Treuer, a professor of literature and creative writing
at the University of Southern California, is known for stories that defy the
stereotypes of Native American literature. His first novel, Little, was
published in 1995, and he has since written several works of fiction,
non-fiction essays, and short stories. Treuer gained recognition in 2006 for The
Translation of Dr. Appelles. The novel focuses on a Native American scholar
who lives alone, translating an unnamed language, and trying to make sense of
his own personal history. Truer is also known for a controversial collection of
essays titled Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual, which challenges
the work of great Native American writers like Sherman Alexie and Louise
Erdrich. Treuer argues that the genre of Native American literature should be
viewed as part of the larger canon of American literature rather than an
artifact of historic Native culture.
